HUGHTON: YOU HAVE TO GIVE OLE CREDIT

Paul Hazlewood Chris Hughton speaks with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer before the match at Old Trafford.

Kieran Cleeves

Brighton & Hove Albion manager Chris Hughton praised Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for the impact he’s made at Manchester United, after the Seagulls were narrowly beaten 2-1 at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Hughton’s side were unable to end United’s impressive winning run, as they sealed victory for a seventh game in a row, and the Albion boss admitted his opposing number deserves credit for their recent improvement.

He said, “The results very much speak for themselves and they’re playing really well — I don’t know what he’s doing with the players, but I don’t think it’s a job that anybody could come into and automatically do well.

“You certainly have to give him credit, because he’s the one that’s managing the team at the moment. They’re on the back of seven games undefeated and some of that is certainly down to him.

“It’s not a given that anybody coming in would turn around the results, but he’s got very good tools to play with, there’s no doubt about that.”

The Seagulls fell behind from the penalty spot after Gaetan Bong was penalised for a foul on Paul Pogba, and Hughton highlighted the difficulty of defending against some of the Premier League’s best attackers.

“I don’t think you can ever be happy about giving a penalty away — it was just a penalty that we didn’t need to give away.

“We gave one away last week [against Liverpool] and that was similar. We gave another one away against Leicester, very late in the game.

“United were going to push and push, and it’s very hard to defend against really clever players.

“The last thing you want is a Salah or Rashford in the box one-v-one, because they can beat the best defenders.

“Once I calm down a bit, the overriding feeling will be that we’ve given a fairly rampant United, at the moment, a game.”